iii. 27-32; iv. 5-15; vii. 9). Eleazar, the head of the priests, who belonged to the Kohathites, and was the chief commander of the three Levitical divisions, had the charge of the oil for the candle stick, the incense, the daily meat-offering, and the Anointing oil (Num. iii. 32 ; iv. 16). (See wood cut, page 821.) The Gershonites, who, out of 75oo men yielded 263o for active service, and who were under the leadership of Eliasaph, had to occupy the west side of the tabernacle, and to take charge of the tapestry of the tabernacle, all its curtains, hang ings, and coverings, the pillars of the tapestry hangings, the implements used in connection there with, and to perform all the work connected with the taking down and putting up of the articles over which they had the charge (Num. iii. 2r-26 ; iv. 22-28). (See woodcut, page 824.) The Merarites, who out of 62oo yielded 32oo active men, and who were under the leadership of Zuriel, had to occupy the north side of the taber nacle, and take charge of the boards, bars, pillars, sockets, tent-pins, etc. (Num. iii. 33-37 ; iv. 39, 4o). The two latter companies, however, were allowed to use the six covered waggons and the twelve oxen which were offered as an oblation to Jehovah ; the Gershonites, having the less heavy portion, got two of the waggons and four of the oxen ; whilst the Merarites, who had the heavier portions, got four of the waggons and eight of the oxen (Num. vii. 3-9). (See woodcut, page 825.) Thus the total number of active men which the three divi sions of the Levites yielded was 8580. When encamped around the tabernacle, they fanned, as it were, a partition between the people and the sanctuary ; they had to guard that the children of Israel should not come near it, since those who ventured to do so incurrcd the penalty of death (Num. i. 51 ; 38 ; xviii. 22) ; nor were they themselves allowed to come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, lest they die, together with the priests (Num. xviii. 3-6). Israelites of any other tribe were strictly forbidden to perform the Levitical office, in order that there might be no plague when the children of Israel approach the sanctuary' (Num. iii. io ; viii. 19 ; xviii. 5); and according to the ancient Hebrew canons, even a priest was not allowed to do the work assig,ned to the Levites, nor was one Levite permitted to perform the duties which were incumbent iipon his fellow Levite on the penalty of death (Maimonides, Hilchoth Kele 1o).
5. Consecration of the Levites.—The first act in the consecration of the I,evites was to sprinkle them with the water of purifying (nNun +n), which, according to tradition, was the same used for the purification of persons who became defiled by dead bodies, and in which were mingled cedar wood, hyssop, scarlet, and ashes of the red heifer (Num. xix. 6, 9, 13), and was designed to cleanse them from the same defilement (comp. Rashi on Num. viii. 7). They had, in the next place, as an emblem of further purification, to shave off all the hair from their body, to teach them thereby,' as Ralbag says, that they must renounce as much as was in their power all worldly things, and devote themselves to the service of the most high God,' and then wash their garments. After this triple form of purification, they were brought before the door of the tabernacle, along with two bullocks and fine flour mingled with oil, when the whole congregation, through the elden who representcd them, laid their hands upon the heads of the Levites, and set them apart for the service of the sanctuary, to occupy the place of the first-born of the whole congregation ; whereupon the priests waved them before the Lord (Num. viii. 5-14), which in all probability was done, as Abravanel says, by leading them forward and backward, up and down, as if saying, behold these are henceforth the servants of the Lord instead of the first-born of the children of Israel (r1-1,14 rnizirn roil= nnn rInv '13111 inn.0 r6321 t..zit's 4)z). The part which the whole congrega tion took in this consecration is a very important feature in the Hebrew constitution, inasmuch as it most distinctly shews that the Levitical order pro ceeded front the midst of theleople (Exod. xxviii. t), was to be regarded as essentially identical with it, and not as a sacred caste standing in proud eminence above the rest of the nation. This principle of equality, which, according to the Mosaic law, was not to be infringred by the introduction of a priest hood or monarchy (Deut. xvii. 14-20), was recog nised throughout the existence of the Hebrew commonwealth, as is evident from the fact that the representatives of the people took part in the coro nation of kings and the instalment of high-priests (i Kings ii. 35 ; with Chron. xxix. 22), and even
in the days of the Maccabees we see that it is the people who installed Simon as high - priest (1 Maccab. xiv. 35).
6. Revenues of the Levites.—Thus consecrated to the service of the Lord, it was necessary that the tribe of Levi should not be engaged in the temporal pursuits of the rest of the people, to enable them to give themselves wholly to their spiritual functions, and to the cultivation of the arts and sciences, as well as to preserve them from contracting a desire to amass earthly possessions. For this reason they were to have no territorial possessions, but Jehovah was to be their inheritance (Num. xviii. 20 ; XXVi. 62 ; Deut. x 9 ; 1, 2 ; Josh. xviii. 7). To reward their labour, which they had henceforth to perform instead of the first born of the whole people, as well as to compensate the loss of their share in the material wealth of the nation, it was ordained that they should receive from the other tribes the tithes of the produce of tbe land, from which the non-priestly portion of the Levites in their turn had to offer a tithe to the priests as a recognition of their higher consecration (Num. xviii. 21-24, 26-32 ; Neh. x. 37). But though they were to have no territorial possessions, still they required a place of abode. To secure this, and at the sante time to enable the Levites to dis seminate a knowledge of the law and exercise a refined and intellectual influence among the people at large, upon whose conscientious payment of the tithes they were dependent for subsistence, forty eight cities were assigned to them, six of which were to be cities of refuge for those who had in advertently killed any one (Num. xxxv. - S). From these forty-eight cities, which they obtained immediately after the conquest of Canaan, and which were made up by taking four cities from the district of every tribe, thirteen werc allotted to the priestly portion of the Levitical tribe. Which cities belonged to the priestly portion of the tribe, and which to the non-priestly portion, and how they were distributed among the other tribes, as re corded in Josh. xxi., will be seen from the follow i»g, Table :— common or suburb, and the space measured from without the city on the east side, etc.,' was a further tract of land of 2000 cubits, used for fields and vineyards, the former being the suburbs' properly so-called, and the latter the fields of the suburbs,' as represented in diagram I. b. Against this vieNv, Each of these cities was required to have an out lying suburb (n)n, rpocioreca) of meadow-land for the pasture of the flocks and herds belonging to the Levites, the dimensions of whichare thus de scribed in Num. xxxv. 4, 5, And the suburb [or pasture-ground] of the cities which ye shall give unto the Levites, are front the wall of the city to the out side a thousand cubits round about ; and ye shall measure from without the city the east corner two thousand cubits, and the south corner two thousand cubits, and the west corner two thousand cubits, and the north corner two thousand cubits, and the city in the centre.' These dimensions have occasioned great difficulty, because of the apparent contradic tion in the two verses, as specifying first moo cubits and then 2000. The LXX., Josephus (d4ntiq. iv. 4. 3), Philo (De Sacerd. honoribus), get over the difficulty by reading 2000 in both verses, as ex hibited in diagram I. a., whilst ancient and modern commentators, who rightly adhere to the text, have endeavoured to reconcile the two verses by advancing different theories, of which the following are the most noticeable : 1. According to the Tal mud (Erubin 51, a), the space measured from the wall 1000 cubits round about,' was used as a however, which is the most simple and rational, and which is adopted by Maintonides (Hdchoth Shemita Ve-7obel,xiii. 2), I3ishop Patrick, and most English expositors, it is urged, that it is not said that the 2000 cubits are to be measured in all direc tions, but only in the east, south, etc., direction, or, as the Hebrew has it, east, south, etc., corner (r1n). 2. It means that a circle of 1000 cubits radius was to be measured from the centre of the city, and then a square circumscribed about that circle, each of whose sides was 2000 cubits long, as exhibited in diagram II. But the objection to this is that the 1000 cubits were to be measured from the wall of the city,' and not from the centre.